


The Class

by arrowsong



Series: Ghosts That We Knew [5]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Criminal Minds, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Adult Content, Discussion, F/M, Low Self-Esteem, Teasing, Time to get a little hot a sweaty, zumba
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-24
Updated: 2015-06-24
Packaged: 2018-04-06 00:58:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4201827
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arrowsong/pseuds/arrowsong
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Charlie manages to drag Garcia and Reid to her weekly Zumba class.  When Sam finally arrives as promised, no one complains when he decides to bring his two friends along for a bit of fun, and payback.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Class

Bright overhead fluorescent lights, and a chorus of steady Latin beats already blaring over the stereos, welcomed Charlie and her friends to the dance studio. A few people had already arrived, but the spacious studio remained vacant for the most part.  Having been to enough of his classes over the years, Charlie knew Javier was close by; he probably just stepped out to refill his water bottle between classes. 

Pointing over to the corner at the far end of the studio, in the front, Charlie, motioned for Spence and Garcia to follow her to the spot.  The front offered them the best view and was, in her opinion, the best place for beginners.

“So, you think he’s going to show up?” Garcia wondered setting her water bottle on the floor just below the mirrors lining the wall.

“Who?” inquired Reid, setting his and Charlie’s bottle down by hers.

“Sam, of course,” screeched Penelope, astonished Reid forgot that Sam was the only one to take Charlie up on the invite to class that night. She didn’t tell Reid that she and Morgan currently had a wager on if the Falcon would show up, and if he’d be bringing his ‘friends,’ with him.  

“If he does, he does.  If he don’t, he don’t,” Charlie shrugged. She was there to get a workout, sweat, and have some fun.  All things, Garcia liked to remind her, that she could have if she had a man – and she wouldn’t have to pay $15/hour for it either.

“Remind me again how I let you talk me into doing this?” Reid demanded taking a place next to Charlie.  Looking around he saw everyone else, Charlie included, had begun stretching in preparation for their class.  Watching her move in the mirror, Reid attempted to mimic her actions.

“It was either Zumba with me, or running with Morgan,” Charlie reminded them both, with a flippant smile, that they had field fitness test coming up, and Morgan would not being riding in, like he did last year, to get them out of it.

“Oh that’s right,” Reid’s shoulders sagged slightly.  “You were the lesser of two evils.”

“Oh come on Spence,” Charlie sighed, changing from warrior to triangle pose.  “Once the music starts you won’t even notice you’re working out, plus it’ll improve your coordination.  It’ll be fun.  You’ll see.”

“You and I have radically different definitions of fun,” Reid reminded her bitterly, as he tried to follow her into the next yoga pose. For some perverse reason Charlie derived pleasure from physical activity that left her with sore muscles and a heaving chest. He preferred to exercise his mind, and play particularly strenuous games of chess in the park on Sunday afternoons, or cruise the theoretical physics section at the bookstore.

“Oh what the hell is that supposed to be?” Charlie wondered, chuckling as she looked over at Reid in the mirror. His limbs we’re bent into an awkward angle while his face, red and sweaty, made it look as though he were about to give birth.

“You work out. I don’t.  It’s not like I actually know what I’m doing over here,” Reid complained, wobbling out of the pose.

“Here,” she stood straight and stepped over to help.  “This one will help increase your hip joint flexibility, spine elasticity, and improve circulation,” she explained, walking him through standing pulled bow pose. “Okay,” she assured him calmly, “now bend forward, at the hips, and keep the leg you have planted on the floor straight. Don’t let go of your rising leg. You’re doing great Spence,” she encouraged, keeping one hand firmly on his hip, while holding his shoulders, helping him sink deeper into the pose.

“Really? Cause this doesn’t feel great,” Spence whined a little looking over to Charlie for reassurance. “In fact, this feels ridiculous.”

“Well maybe if you actually joined us for yoga, then you wouldn’t have the flexibility of a ninety-year old man,” teased Garcia as she followed their movements with ease.  She liked yoga, yoga didn’t involve obscene amounts of sweat, plus she could do some poses at her desk while working. On the whole, Garcia was very pro-yoga.

“Told you they were talking about you,” Sam teased strutting confidently into the dance studio, with water bottle in hand.

“You know Stevie, I think we’ve just been insulted,” a familiar voice, saturated with mock indignation, followed seconds later.

Abandoning her place by Spencer’s side, causing him to wobble out of position, and stumble forward only for Garcia to steady him out, Charlie whipped around, her ponytail nearly smacking Reid in the face. “James?” she asked excitedly, unable to fight the grin illuminating her face as she caught sight of Bucky walking towards her. “You came?”

“Like we’d miss out on a chance to watch Sam fall on his ass,” Bucky grinned, rocking back on his heels when he caught Charlie’s eyes. 

They had been teasing Sam, since Bucky returned home Saturday night, for agreeing to go to Zumba in the first place. Sick and tired of their constant mocking Sam challenged them to put their money where their mouth was, and join him in the class.  He also earned Bucky’s silence by pointing out that the only reason he agreed to come in the first place was to give _lover boy_ a chance to see his girlfriend again.

“Besides,” he added casually with a cocksure grin, “I like dancing.”

“Well that makes two of us,” Charlie continued smiling at him, ignoring Garcia’s tittering, and Reid’s eye roll, in the background. Looking past James Charlie raised her hand to acknowledge Sam and Steve’s presence as well. 

“Hey Charlie,” Sam smiled knowingly in her direction as he spotted the matching luminous grins on hers and Barnes’ faces – though he had a feeling the smile on Charlie’s face wasn’t for him, or Steve. He nodded his head, acknowledging Spencer and Penelope as well.  Setting his Nike bag down along the front near the mirrored wall next the their things, he took a spot behind Reid and Garcia, and began to stretch.

Steve nodded in Charlie’s direction, gracing her with a warm, heartfelt smile.  He took his spot next to Sam, never taking his eyes off Bucky. Grinning. The last time Steve saw Bucky get that excited about a woman, Nazi Germany was still a threat, and Steve was still just a skinny kid with way too many health problems.

“I suppose I should be thanking you for the flowers, Captain Rogers,” Charlie smiled politely in his direction. “They’re lovely,” she added, never taking her eyes off Bucky as she spoke, even though she was technically facing Steve.

“That’s really not necessary ma’am,” Steve flushed.  The flowers had been Buck’s idea.  Dragged him out of bed at the crack of dawn Sunday morning to go to the florists a few blocks away right as they opened, where they proceeded to spend nearly an hour comparing bunches of daisies to a couple handfuls of tulips. It occurred to Steve, as he was handing the shop owner his credit card, just how much Bucky must like this girl if he was willing to go through all this trouble for a few orange looking daisies. “I only paid for them.”

“Well thank you anyways,” Charlie smiled warmly before a voice, with a thick South American accent that Steve wanted to classify as Cuban, called her name tearing her attention away from the trio.

Standing by the door dressed in a pair of loose fitting, black shorts, and a very tight burgundy muscle tank was an inexplicably handsome man. He kept his lush black hair loose, curling around his ears even though it was long enough to be pulled back to form a small ponytail.  His eyes were coffee, warm, rich, potent, but energizing and filled with purpose. He flashed the class a smile, showing off two rows of perfectly straight pearly white teeth, though it wasn’t until he caught sight of Charlie that he turned up the luminosity behind that smarmy grin.

He called her name again, approaching the group, the same way one might greet an old friend.  Immediately he pulled her in for a one-arm hug, kissing both of her smooth cheeks with his far rougher, stubble filled ones. He followed his greeting with several rapidly spoken words in Spanish.  That surprised no one.  What did surprise the three vets, watching the exchange, was that Charlie responded with a sweet, almost musical, laugh before replying in equally rapid, flawless Spanish. 

They continued their brief conversation until Garcia cleared her throat, clearly begging to be introduced to this fine specimen of man.

“Where are my manners,” Charlie pardoned herself for her apparent rudeness.  “I hope you don’t mind, Javier, I brought some friends with me tonight.”

“Any friend of Charlie’s is always welcomed in my class,” Javier replied with one of his model worthy smiles. “Besides, when was the last time we saw this class so full?”

Going clock wise Charlie made her round of introductions, finishing with Garcia.  “Garcia?” Javier brightened quickly.  Turning to face the buxom blonde he smiled before beginning another torrid rush of Spanish.

When Garcia said nothing, and shot Charlie a helpless, confused look Charlie cut in.  She explained to the bewildered Javier that, despite what her name might suggest, Garcia was not Hispanic.  Her stepfather was, but the only Spanish Garcia knew was Morgan’s order at Taco Bell.

“Still, I did not expect Charlie to have so many good looking friends. I always thought she was the pretty one,” he added looking around at the group.  “Now I think I may have been mistaken.  It is not a wonder she is always working,” he paused, flashing the ladies another warm, flirtatious smile. “ Well, I am very happy to have you here. I am even more excited to see so many men; it is nice to have some diversity in my class.  Plus the ladies love men who Zumba.” Looking to Reid and Sam, he added, “you master the Zumba then you will master the Salsa, and a man who can Salsa is irresistible to all women.”  When no one replied he looked to the men in general, “you get lost just watch Charlie, she’s a great dancer,” then turned and strutted towards another group of ladies to introduce himself.

James moved to say something, but was effectively cut off my Penelope clutching onto Charlie’s arm.  “Thank you for bringing that beautiful, beautiful man into our lives.”

“Was it just me or did he seem to think that we won’t be able to keep up,” Sam questioned; insulted that Javier assumingly believed that they wouldn’t be able to keep stride with Charlie and the other women present.  “And why did he look at us,” he motioned between him and Spence, “when he started talking about being irresistible to women?  What? Are we less irresistible than them?” he pointed to Steve and Bucky indignantly.

“To someone like him, yes,” Reid answered with an awkward chuckle.  When he saw a series of confused, dazed expressions staring back at him he began to clarify what he thought had been the glaringly obvious. “We’re the only ones in the group without a mutation in the form of an incredibly low presence of melanin in the stroma, which causes blue and green eyes,” he explained quickly, referring to the fact that in the group, only he and Sam had brown eyes. “Javier is from . . . Cuba,” he looked to Charlie for clarification. Caught off guard, clearly not listening as her little brother went on another one of his usual tirades, she nodded her head and he continued.  “Brown eyes are the dominant eye colour in most of the world – including parts of the US with lower populations of Northern European immigrants. Someone with blue or green eyes would be a rare commodity in places such as Cuba, and subtly suggests a genetic diversity that would be considered extremely desirable when producing offspring. 

The concept of having and maintaining family is one of the highest values in many Hispanic cultures. So what might have come off as a thinly veiled insult, was actually an attempt to help us ,develop skills that would then assist in attracting a mate, because he sees us as being at a disadvantage compared to the natural genetic mutation Capt. Rogers and Sgt. Barnes have over us.”

“Is that all?” retorted Sam.

“And this is why we don’t ask questions around Reid,” Garcia mumbled, causing Charlie’s face to split into a wide grin.

“What did I do now?” he inquired, lost and confused, looking to Charlie for answers.

“Not a damn thing,” she laughed, grabbing him by the head, and placed an affectionate kiss on the side of his head.

“What was that for?”

“Being you,” Charlie rubbed his left arm affectionately before leaving the group to grab a quick drink of water before class started.

“I don’t know how to be anyone else,” he added, eyes squinting, still bewildered by her strange behaviour.

“And that’s why we love you,” Garcia added, kissing her two fingers and pressing them against his forehead before joining Charlie up at the front of the class.

As she took a gratuitous drink from her black stainless steel water bottle with the FBI logo embossed on the front she heard Garcia softly sing, “Bucky and Charlie sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G,” in her ear.  Turning around she gave Garcia an exasperated glare, “What are you going on about now?” she mused, lifting her old baggy Vassar sweatshirt over her head to reveal of teal tank top.

“Nothing, just you and your future husband getting ready to get all hot and sweaty together,” teased Garcia giving Charlie a playful nudge.  “Oh come on, he totally came here just to see you again,” she added when Charlie glared at her for a second time after discarding her sweater in the corner. Though try as she might, she couldn’t stop Garcia from spotting the tiny little smile hidden in the corner of her mouth.  Just watching Charlie’s entire face glow whenever she caught Bucky’s eye in the mirror was enough to warm Garcia’s heart and fill her with all sorts of warm fuzzy feelings.   But before she could tease her friend about it any more Javier’s smooth, velvetesque voice rang out for the class to begin, and asked everyone to take their places.

 

* * *

 

Zumba was nothing like what Bucky, or Steve expected. The music was fast, and the steps even quicker. It had all started easily enough.  When Javier called for the class to begin he started them all off with slow marching, child’s play for three vets like Steve, Sam and Buck.  It was the parts that came after that had Bucky and Steve tripping all over themselves.

They watched in mixed awe and horror at the way Javier moved his feet, and rolled his body. The more they tried to follow the surer they became that the man simply had no bones in his body. What the hell kind of dancing was this?  Back in the day dancing involved partners, lifts, spins, dips, and fun.  This was sweat, confusion, and hell.

The only joy Bucky took from any of this was when he’d look over in the mirror and watch Charlie.  Somehow she managed to follow in perfect time, and always with a smile on her face.  She was having a blast. Seeing that, somehow, almost made it all worthwhile – almost.  

“I feel like an idiot,” Steve grumbled in Bucky’s ear, blaming him for their current predicament.

“Come on Stevie,” Bucky whispered back after a haphazard spin.  “We all look like idiots.”

Almost as if to prove his point, on cue, Charlie called out, “arms wider Penelope.” To which she replied, “I’ll give you wider arms,” under her breath, followed by a few choice words. She and Reid struggled to keep up with Charlie and Javier with their ‘African arms.’

“Come on, keep up grandpas,” Sam mocked nearly running over Steve, who missed a step in his grumbling to Bucky. Sam, as it turned out, was a natural.  It took him a quick minute or so of observation before he picked up the steps, following them almost in beat with the instructor.  “Look alive, otherwise we might need to call medi-care.”

 _Nothing more than some good-natured ribbing,_ Bucky reminded himself.  Sam earned it, after all the crap he took from him and Steve regarding running.  He was a good sport most of the time.  The sound of Charlie’s sweet Southern twang calling out, ‘go Sam’ cut through Bucky’s thoughts.  Looking back at her in the mirror he smiled again.

‘Eyes on him,” she mouthed, motioning for James to be looking at Javier, not watching her, with a tilt of her head.

‘Sorry,’ he mouthed back.  Why? He didn’t know.  Javier told them to watch Charlie if they got lost, he was just doing what the instructor told them – even if it wasn’t for the reason he told them to.

 

At one point, when he and Steve were beyond hopelessly lost, Bucky overheard Javier call Charlie’s name and usher her a command in Spanish.  She immediately stopped what she was doing, much to his chagrin; the only good thing about being so utterly clueless was that it gave him an excuse to watch her as she rolled her hips to the beat, and the not so innocent thoughts it induced. Bucky continued to watch as she came up behind Reid, who stood in front of Sam on his left.  Placing both her hands on his hips she helped guide Reid until his body rolled smoothly to the music rather than the near spastic convulsing he’d been doing prior to her assistance.

Then she moved on to Garcia, in front of Steve on his right.  Again she addressed Garcia’s problems.  Though Garcia whispered something that brought a smile to Charlie’s face before whispering something back that made Penelope burst out in a fit of giggles. Apologizing to Javier, they turned matching shades of pink when he looked back and scowled at them for interrupting his Zumba with giggling.

After helping Penelope, Charlie made her way to the back row, helping Steve first, then Sam – not that Sam actually needed any help.  He appeared to be doing just fine on his own.  Finally, she came up behind Bucky, and he felt the warmth of her breath on his neck as her hands wrapped around his waist, grabbing hold of his hips.  “You need to loosen your hips a bit – you’re too tense,” she whispered in his ear. Together their bodies moved in unison as he reacted to her touch, following her body’s guidance. “There you go, just feel the rhythm.”

Bucky suppressed a groan, trying not to think about the proximity of their bodies, or how good it felt having her hands on him.

Either sensing his frustrations or reading his mind she leaned in even closer, and whispered, “still not the sign.”

This time Bucky didn’t bother trying to hold back his groan. Why did it have to be so hard? “You’re killing me, you know that Rhys?” he wondered, catching the mischievous glint in her eyes he added, “and if I didn’t know better I’d say you were doing it on purpose.”

“A girl’s got to have her fun somehow,” Charlie replied with a coy smile and flirtatious wink.

Before he had a chance to reply, call her a dirty little tease, or tell her exactly what he’d like to do about it, she sauntered back to the front of the class to help Garcia with a different motion. While she wandered around, helping the other students where she could, her eyes seldomly left his, and he knew.

This woman had him in the palm of her hand. And what more? He could care less.  So long as she kept looking at him like that, like there was some great joke that only the two of them were privy to, then he didn’t care.  He could not thank Sam enough for agreeing to go to Zumba, he’d have to buy him coffee, or a case of beer, or something.

 

* * *

 

At the end of class, hair damp and body soaked with sweat Charlie grabbed her water bottle.  Taking large gulps, pausing to pour some of the water on her face, she drank until her chest finally stopped heaving.  After nearly five years of attending classes she still failed to leave without looking as though she’d been pushed into the pool.

“What? Did someone finally take the battery pack out of the energizer bunny?” called Sam, coming up to grab his own bottle of water from the front.  “Jesus Rhys, I’m exhausted just watching you.”

Laughing awkwardly, Charlie turned around to face the group again. Steve and James were the only ones not to be thoroughly drenched in sweat, but even they glistened slightly beneath the overhead lights. “I’m what you call a little high energy,” she explained, Southern twang coming through stronger than usual.  It tended to happen after a good workout, when she was too tired to bother hiding her roots.  “Guess I was just born that way.”

“Actually,” Reid wheezed between gulps of water. Having polished off his own meagre bottle of Evian, he was now working his way through Charlie’s bottle, all the while trying to get his chest to stop burning and his heartbeat to return to normal.  “An argument can be made that your dad conditioned you to be that way.  By keeping you active, in organized activities like baseball, gymnastics, dance classes and so on, it meant that you were seldom home, not only keeping you safe from his psychopathic urges but also making it less likely you’d notice any peculiar behaviour on his part. By keeping you busy, he was effectively keeping his alternate persona secret.”

Bucky’s eyes immediately darted over to Charlie, and he began replaying parts of their conversation form Saturday night. _I don’t know what’s real anymore. Did he really believe I was going somewhere? Or was he just trying to keep me out of the house so I wouldn’t notice what was really going on in the barn?_

If those thoughts flickered in Charlie’s mind they way the did in his, she showed no sign of it. The mask was back on. She stared at Reid with a face of cool marble. “That’s five dollars in the jar,” she pinched at his side, making his squirm out of her way.

“At least,” Garcia agreed, though the small snort of derision she made suggested she thought he owed more, but wouldn’t press the issue.

Steve contemplated asking about ‘the jar,’ but decided that he really didn’t want to know.  The more time he spent amongst the BAU the more he determined that profilers were a peculiar breed, no action, or question was safe from their watchful gaze.  He still recalled the way Charlie gleaned so many details about Buck just from watching him sweat for five minutes in Quantico.  He really didn’t want to know what she had picked up about him. 

“It’s like a swear jar,” Charlie explained, catching the puzzled look on Steve’s face.  “We’re a team, we’re not supposed to be profiling each other.  So whenever one of us breaks that rule the member they profiled determines how much the offending party owes and they have to donate to the jar.  Reid is our top donor, ain’t that right little brother,” she smiled playfully, ruffling his hair. 

“It’s official,” Sam announced looking around at the group. “All profilers are freaks,” he added a light-hearted chuckle, in case the fact that he was teasing was not immediately apparent. “I’m just amazed we found someone actually able to keep up with the super dorks,” he motioned to Steve and Bucky, who gave him matching unimpressed glares.

“Sam,” Charlie scolded lightly, “that’s not nice.  You’re supposed to respect your elders, not insult them,” she added before joining Penelope and Sam in laughing.

“Very funny,” Bucky grumbled, eyes darkening.  He _never_ got tired of age jokes.

“Come on, lets go hit the showers,” Steve nudged his friend with the back of his hand.  Last thing he wanted was Buck going to the dark place.

“Yeah, I don’t know about you guys, but I need one,” Sam announced, lifting his shirt slightly to expose a perfect set of six-pack abs. 

Catching sight of Sam’s exposed mid-drift Garcia let out a small, strangled whimper.  Between their gorgeous instructor and his snake hips, and the impressive view from Sam, it was slowly turning into one of Garcia’s best nights.

“She okay?” Sam nodded over in Penelope’s direction.

“Fine.” Charlie replied with an amused smile.  “Garcia just has a thing for beautiful black men.”

Swatting her arm Garcia corrected, “people. They don’t have to be black, or men.” She gave Charlie a playful purr before adding, “Speaking of beautiful people, perhaps we’ll finally be seeing the rest of that little hip tattoo of yours.”

“You wish,” Charlie teased back with a chuckle and wide grin. “I’m going to be showering far away from you.”

“Well, a girl can dream,” sighed Garcia breathily.

“Garcia, what am I going to do with you? Charlie laughed again.  At least she could always count on Garcia’s flirtations to give her self-esteem a boost if she was ever feeling low.  Worked just about every time.

“Spank me?” came Garcia’s saucy retort, full of mock innocence, and complete with a flirtatious wink.

“Oh no,” Charlie argued shaking her head.  “That is Morgan’s job.”

“Hmm, too true,” Penelope agreed.

“Well just keep me away Sgt. Six pack over there,” Steve teased with a humorous grin. “Might be bad for the self-esteem. I didn’t quite get the work out I was expecting.”

“Yeah, cause I bet you two look real disgusting under those muscle tees of yours,” scoffed Charlie with a skeptical shake of her head.

Exchanging smirks, both Bucky and Steve lifted their shirts to show off matching pairs of six pack abs that rivalled Sam’s.  Not one to be outshone, Sam lifted his shirt back up, giving Charlie and Penelope an eyeful of the combined eighteen pack.

“Idiots,” Charlie whispered under her breathe with an amused expression as she rolled her eyes.

“God bless Ab-merica,” Garcia whimpered, not taking her eyes off the three exposed bodies in front of her.

“Don’t make me tell Morgan on you,” Charlie mused back to her friend.  Without looking at the guys, her eyes swept the room and noticed a gaggle of women in one corner ogling James and his friends, giggling excitedly amongst themselves.  “Would y’all put your shirts back on,” she instructed in a suddenly less than impressed tone, “before Javier needs a mop to clean up the excess drool.”

Bucky was the first to obey Charlie’s orders. Looking over in the direction of her finger he noticed the ladies still tittering and smiling in their direction.  Out of habit he smiled back at them before looking back to the others.  “Come on, let’s go hit the showers and get changed.”

Steve and Sam turned to follow suit. Whether it was part of their plan to be stopped by the gaggle of women, or if they had genuinely wanted to get to showers, no one knew. But the small mob of women prevented the guys from getting into the change rooms.  Their plans were further thwarted when one of the girls realized that Steve was, in fact, Captain America.    

Laughing, Charlie and Garcia watched in amusement while James and the guys chatted with their new found groupies, as they tried making their way to the showers.  Turning around to tease Reid about having some competition she noticed Spencer standing off on the other side of the room, eyes cast downwards and he chewed on his lip furiously.  

Telling Penelope she’d meet her in the change room, Charlie broke away from her colleague and headed over in Reid’s direction.  “Hey little brother,” she whispered in a soft, soothing voice.  “What’s eating you?”

“What? Nothing?” Reid replied quickly, startled by Charlie’s sudden presence. “I just thought maybe I’d shower at home instead,” he added, not taking his eyes off the small mob now surrounding Steve and co.

“Why? This doesn’t have anything to do with the gun show earlier, does it?” wondered Charlie with a carefully arched brow.

“It’s nothing,” Reid attempted to brush her off and move towards the door.

“Reid, come on,” Charlie reached out, preventing him from a clean escape.  “Talk to me,” she pleaded softly.  It was unbearable for her to see Reid feeling that way.

“It’s bad enough I have to share a locker room with Morgan,” he sighed, turning back to face her. Together they moved over to the mirrored wall before sliding down to the ground, sitting shoulder to shoulder.  “But now it’s like sharing a room with three Morgans.”

“And you’re feeling inadequate because you don’t look the way they do?” It was more of a statement than a question, but Charlie still left it open for Reid to explain as little or as much as he wanted.

“ I mean how am I supposed to compete with that?” he demanded, gesturing back in their direction. “Look at how women just flock to them, all because they lifted up their shirts. They have it so easy. Women never look at me like that.”  The meek voice that delivered that last sentence broke Charlie’s heart.

“Hey,” she scolded softly, lifting his chin up form where Spencer had buried it against his chest, resting his nose against his drawn up knees.  “Don’t you go selling yourself short like that.  You got plenty to offer. And someday someone is going to be lucky enough to find out just how much you have to offer them.  You just haven’t found them yet.”

Looking over at her Reid rolled his eyes.  It was the same pep talk he heard back in high school, college, grad school, and in the academy. Only now instead of it being his mom, or Gideon telling him how he was a special little snow flake and he just needed to find someone who liked smart guys, it was his best friend.

“Spencer Reid you stop that now,” Charlie scolded.  “You are not rugged and manly like James and his friends – that much is true.”

“And this is supposed to make me feel better?” he looked over at her skeptically.

“Shut up and listen,” she pushed him playfully with her shoulder.  “You ain’t in the same class as them, but you’re in a class all your own. You got a sweetness to you, with a pretty, kind face.  Did every hooker hit on Morgan when we worked that case with Detective McGee? No. Those women are use to men who look like Morgan, big tough guys, but they liked you.”

“Great, so you’re suggesting I exclusively date hookers? That’s not pathetic.”

“Would you let me talk?” Charlie swatted the back of his head, loosing patience with his self-pity. “They liked you cause you’re kind looking, and sweet.  Hell you’re the sweetest guy I know.” Catching his skeptical glare, Charlie continued, “it’s true. How many times have you let me sleep on your couch when things get too crazy over at my place?  Or stay up late at night with me watching vintage horror movies, and Doctor Who reruns? Plus who else takes the time to write a letter to their mother every day because they know how much their mom prefers reading?” She continued listing all the things Reid did on a regular basis for Charlie, and the rest of the team. “Plus, whether you believe it or not, you are pretty easy on the eyes there, pretty boy,” she teased with Morgan’s usual nickname for the genius.

“It is going to take a very special woman to sweep Spencer Reid off his feet,” she added give him a tender smile. “I mean lets face it, we’re BAU, we don’t do well with the average folk – we’re married to the job. Think about it, of all the relationships that have worked, JJ met Will, a homicide detective, when we worked that Jones case down in New Orleans, and Morgan and Garcia are dating each other! I mean I think it was kind of lucky that Beth’s job took her to New York, that way it’s not just Hotch constantly leaving her behind at home whenever a case comes up, they’re already doing the long distance thing – which I hope works out for them. We don’t have regular relationships. We can’t.”

“I know,” Reid sighed, smiling meekly over at her.  “It’s just that . . . since Maeve, I’ve been . . . lonely, you know?”

“Oh, trust me,” Charlie exhaled slowly, “I know.”  She could scarce recall the last time she actually had a first date, let alone a second. Her job wasn’t the only thing that was bad for a love life.  Most guys could get on board with dating a federal agent, her father on the other hand, well that tended to be a deal breaker for most. It was one of the reasons she loved working in foreign countries, most people there had never even heard of the name Lewis Rhys, or if they had it meant next to nothing to them.

Licking his lips, Spencer contemplated not asking, before deciding to just go for it anyways. “Can I ask you something . . . personal?”

“Shoot.”

“How long has it been since . . . you know?” His ears turned a brilliant shade of scarlet. Even after he stopped talking, the subject of his question continued the flush now spreading down to his cheeks.

“Oh God,” Charlie leaned back, pressing the skin of her expose neck against the cool mirrors. “Let’s see, today makes it . . . ten months and two weeks, or three hundred and eighteen days.” Spencer stared at her, stunned by such a precise answer. Chuckling Charlie looked over at him, “Tomas and I had quickie the morning I left Buenos Aires.”

“Wow,” Reid breathed. He didn’t expect it have been such a long time for Charlie.  He hated to admit it, but it kind of made him feel better to know that it had almost been as long for Charlie as it had been for him. “How do you do it?” he wondered.

“Let’s just say I’ve become very attached to my shower head, and its thirteen different settings,” she laughed as Reid turned an even brighter shade of pink but laughed along with her, relieved in knowing he wasn’t alone. “Besides, if it gets to that one year mark, I might be making a very expensive booty call to Argentina.”

“Did you know that shower heads and electric toothbrushes are the most common household items women use to masturbate?” Reid prattled off his fact before starting to list the raw data figures to support his claims.

“You mean to tell me even my shower head is cheating on me? Rat bastard.”

Reid burst out laughing as Charlie continued with her mock indignation. Smiling he looked over at Charlie. “You’re my best friend, you know that?”

“Right back at ya,” Charlie grinned leaning over to rest against him. “I don’t go talking about Fabio to just anyone you know,” she teased a bit more, revealing the name she’d given her shower.  After a moment of mutual chuckling Charlie looked back over at Reid. “So, you feel better yet?” she wondered.

“Yeah, yeah I am,” he agreed smiling at her. 

“Great, cause I thought of another thing that’d make you smile,” she added with a mischievous glimmer twinkling behind her eye.

“Oh?” Spence wondered, getting up from where they’d been sitting.  Turning a round he reached out a hand to help Charlie back onto her feet.

“Yeah,” Charlie smirked, grabbing hold of his hand.  “You’re feeling jealous and inferior because you’re single.” With a firm grasp she pulled herself up, leaning in close to Reid she whispered in his ear, “well those guys look the way they do, but they’re all single too.”

“That’s right,” Reid beamed suddenly before adding, “well not all of them,” catching the way James was looking over at them from where he stood by the door. Reid smiled seeing the mildly concerned look cloud Sgt. Barnes’ handsome face as he watched Charlie. As they approached the door to the different change rooms, Charlie smiled at Reid and gave his arm an affectionate rub, watching him smile at James before disappearing into the locker room.

“So?” she asked curiously twiddling her fingers behind her back as she caught James’ eye, “what’d you think of Zumba?”

Chuckling uneasily Bucky looked down at the smirking FBI agent. “It was . . . interesting,” his voice faltered as he looked for the right words to describe the experience. “Don’t really think it’s my kinda scene though. Think I prefer the kind of dancing we did back in my day. Hey, is everything okay with your friend Reid? You two looked kind of . . . serious.”

“Everything’s fine,” nodded Charlie. Reid’s insecurities were safe with her.  “Why? You jealous?”

“Do I have a reason to be?” Bucky wondered, toying nervously with the tag on the back of his shirt. He didn’t want to be the jackass who got jealous cause his girl was close to guys; especially cause Charlie wasn’t even his girl, not officially. Besides, most of her colleagues were men, she just seemed so close with Reid, and he wondered if maybe they were one of those ‘friends with benefits’ he’d heard so much about from Nat.

“No,” she replied point blank. “Reid’s Reid, we go way back, but he’s family – besides, I kind of have a rule about dating colleagues. I don’t.” _I used to also have a rule about not dating people I was assigned to evaluate – but thanks to you that’s blown to hell now,_ she added mentally with a coy smile.

“What?” Bucky wondered in amusement, noticing the smile toying on her lips.

“Nothing,” she grinned. “You looked good out there.”

“I looked like an idiot,” he countered.

“Yeah, but on the bright side, at least you managed to keep up with me.”

“How is that a bright side?” wondered Bucky, curious as to where Charlie was going with all of this.

Biting down on her bottom lip Charlie leaned up on her toes, whispering in his ear, “I don’t sleep with guys who can’t keep up.” Without looking back to gauge a reaction she turned on the balls of her feet, and headed towards the ladies locker room for a sorely needed shower.

Bucky remained firmly planted where he stood, watching as Charlie walked away. His arms crossed in front of his chest, biting down his lower lip suddenly finding it difficult to breath. Oh she was wicked. Wonderfully, deliciously wicked. 

“Hey.” Steve took Bucky by surprise, making him jump slightly, by popping his head out of the locker room. “You coming?”

“Yep,” Bucky nodded quickly, “just give me a minute.” Last thing he needed was Sam or Steve seeing the evidence of Charlie’s teasing, and the effect it had on him.  Once he calmed enough, Bucky whipped his shirt off, slinging it casually over his shoulder, and sauntered into the locker room. Perhaps a good hot shower was exactly what he needed in order to clean up some of the thoughts currently floating around in the back of his mind.


End file.
